Hand lever assembly



March 17, 1953 R. D. PAGE HAND LEVER ASSEMBLY Filed Sept. 4 1951 i7 /7 F'/ G. J.

j INVENTOR /7 //i 234 YMONO 0. PAGE,

, fimflaoz v Um ATTORNEYS Patented Mar. 17, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HAND LEVER ASSEMBLY Raymond D. Page, Litchfield, 111. Application September 4, 1951, Serial No. 244,898

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to hand lever assemblies and more particularly to a hand lever assembly including a lever, a toothed quadrant, a spring pressed detent carried by the lever and a tiltable handle carried by the lever for releasin the detent from the quadrant.

It is among the objects of the invention to provide an improved hand lever assembly including a toothed quadrant, a lever pivotally mounted at one end and movable along the quadrant, and a detent carried by the lever and engageable with the quadrant to lock the lever in selected positions of adjustment relative to the quadrant, wherein a tiltable handle is mounted on the free end of the lever and connected to the detent for releasing the detent by tilting movement of the handle relative to the lever; wherein the movement of the handle relative to the lever is Substantially at right angles to the movement of the lever relative to the quadrant; wherein resilient means are provided to automatically return the handle to its position freeing the detent for reengagement with the quadrant and to hold the handle in this position against vibrational forces; and which assembly is simple and durable in construction, economical to manufacture, and positive and enective in operation.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the following description and the appended claim in conjunction with the accompanying drawing wherein:

' Figure 1 is a front elevational view of a hand lever assembly illustrative of the invention;

Figure 2 is a side elevational view or the assembly illustrated in Figure l; and

Figure 3 isa fragmentary cross sectional view on an enlarged scale on the line 3-3 of Figure 2.

With continued reference to the drawing, the numeral ll) indicates a hand lever and quadrant support, such as a portion of the frame of a machine, and the numeral I I indicates a toothed quadrant mounted on'the support ill, the quadrant being illustrated as having a straight side l2 secured to the support by suitable means, such as bolts or rivets l3, and having a semicircular side It centered on a center of curvature substantially at the mid-length location of the straight side I2 and provided with teeth 15 spaced apart around the periphery thereof.

A hand lever 16 is pivotally mounted intermediate its length on the quadrant l I or the support I 2 or on both the support and the quadrant by a pivot pin or bolt ll, so that the axis of pivotal movement of the lever relative to the quadrant is substantially coincident with the center of curvature of the curved side M of the quadrant,

The lever has a short end extending from the pivot pin l1 and provided with a terminal eye formation It and one end of a link rod [9 is pivotally mounted in the eye formation l8, so that the lever will impart longitudinal movement to the link rod asthe lever is moved relative to the quadrant about the pivotal axis of the pivot pin ll.

A detent Z6 is slidably mounted on the lever adjacent the curved side of the quadrant by a guideway 24 secured to the lever and this detent is engageable with the teeth 15 of the quadrant to releasably lock the lever in selected positions of adjustment relative to the quadrant.

A spring abutment 22 having an aperture there in is mounted on the lever at a location spaced from the side of the guideway 2| remote from the quadrant and the detent has a portion 23 of reduced diameter extending through the spring abutment 22 and provided with a terminal eye formation 24 which, as illustrated, is in the form of a bifurcated portion providing a pair of spaced apart apertured lugs. An annular spring abutment shoulder is provided at the proximal end of the reduced portion 23 of the detent and a coiled compression spring 25 surrounds the reduced portion of the detent between the annular shoulder and the spring abutment 22 and resiliently urges the detent into engagement with the quadrant teeth l5.

At its end remote from the. eye formation l8 the hand lever is provided with a transversely extending aperture and a pivot pin 26 extends through this aperture and is disposed substantially at right angles to the pivot pin I].

A handle, generally indicated at 21, is pivotally mounted on the lever by the pivot pin 26 and includes a hollow, substantially cylindrical portion 28 open at one end and closed at its other end by an end wall 29.

At the open end of the cylindrical portion 28 thereof the handle is provided With a pair of ofiset legs 30 and 3! which straddle the adjacent end of the hand lever 16 and are apertured to receive the pivot pin 26 at the corresponding ends of the latter to pivotally mount the handle on the corresponding end of the lever for pivotal movements relative to the handle about an axis substantially at right angles to the axis of pivotal movements of the lever relative to the quadrant. Preferably, bearing Washer 32 and 33 surround the pivot pin 26 between the legs 30 and 31 respectively, and the adjacent sides of the hand lever and the pin 26 is headed at the outer sides of the handle legs to retain it in end bearing on the lever, the plunger 35 is preferably enlarged, as indicated at 36, to provide an end surface of greater area than the cross sectional area of the portion of the plunger extending into the hollow handle.

A compression spring 3'! is disposedin the hollow handle between the end wall 29 and'the adjacent end of the plunger 35' and acts between the handle and the plunger to resiliently urge the handle to a position in whichit is substantially in longitudinal alignment with the handle.

The legs 30 and 3! are of substantially semicircular shape, as is particularly illustrated in Figure 2, and are joined to the cylindrical portion 28 of the handle by a flat plate portion 38 of generally rectangular shape. A pair of apertured lugs 39 project outwardly from the edge of the handle portion 38 at the side of the hand lever IE on which the detent 20 is mounted and a link 40 having eye formations disposed one at each end thereof has one eye formation disposed between the lugs of the eye formation 24 of the detent and its other eye formation disposed between the lugs 39 of the handle. The link 40 is pivotally connected to the detent by a pivot pin or rivet 4| and is pivotally connected to the handle by a pivot pin or rivet 42.

With this arrangement, when the handle is tilted toward the side of the lever remote from the detent 20, a pull will be exerted on the link 40 which will move the detent away from the toothed quadrant against the force of spring 25, so that the handle can be moved relative to the quadrant and when the tilting force on the handle is released the spring 31 acting between the plunger 35 and the closed end of the handle will return the handle to its position of longitudinal alignment relative to the lever releasing the pull on the link 40 and freeing the spring the claim are, therefore, intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed is:

In combination with a toothed quadrant having a center of curvature, a lever pivotally mounted intermediate its length adjacent the center of curvature of said quadrant and extending past the latter, and a spring pressed detent carried by the lever and engageable with the teeth of the quadrant to releasably lock the lever in selected positions of adjustment relative to the quadrant, a handle mounted on the free end of said lever for pivoted movement relative to the lever about an axis substantially at right 1 angles to the axis of pivotal movement between the lever and said quadrant, a link connecting said handle tosaid detent for movement of said detent away from said quadrant when said handle is tilted in one direction relative to said lever, and resilient means interposed between said lever and said handle urging said handle to a position relative to said lever to free said detent for engagement with said quadrant, said handle including a hollow portion closed at one end and a pair of outwardly offset legs extending from the open end of said hollow portion and straddling the adjacent end of said lever, each of said legs having an aperture near its end remote from said hollow portion and said lever having a fiat surface on its handle carrying end and an aperture extending transversely therethrough adjacent said flat surface, and a pivot pin extending through the apertures in said legs and said lever, and said resilient means comprising a plunger slidably received in the hollow portion of the handle at the open end of said hollow portion and having at one end a flat surface bearing on the adjacent end of said lever, and a compression spring disposed in the hollow portion of said handle between the closed end of said hollow portion and the adjacent end of said plunger.

RAYMOND D. PAGE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 259,297 Dickson June 13, 1882 398,152 I-Iardie Feb. 19, 1889 470,494 Kline Mar. 8, 1892 803,495 Lund Oct. 31, 1905 889,198 Burke June 2, 1908 1,610,069 Weber Dec. 7, 1926 2,107,047 Sandberg Feb. 1, 1938 2,369,056 Langdon et a1. Feb. 6, 1945 2,394,985 Court Feb. 19, 1946 2,477,140 Peterson July 26, 1949 2,510,122 Lomholt June 6, 1950 2,561,546 Wallace July 24, 1951 

